Scrinium vs Bear: the same taste in editors, a different answer on encryption
Bear and Scrinium agree that writing should feel good. They disagree about whether the service holding your notes should be able to read them.
Scrinium vs Bear · Reviewed September 2026 · 4 min read
Choose Bear if…
You are all-in on Apple hardware, you want a gorgeous native editor, and your notes are not sensitive enough to need keys the service cannot use.
Choose Scrinium if…
You want the typing experience without the Apple-only shelf, and encryption that holds even if the operator is compromised.
Bear vs Scrinium at a glance
| Criterion | Bear | Scrinium |
|---|---|---|
| Content encrypted end to end | No: No end-to-end encryption for the notebook | Yes: Yes — encrypted on your device before it syncs |
| Zero-knowledge (the service cannot read notes) | No: No — sync runs through a service that can reach the data | Yes: Yes — keys never leave your device |
| Free sync across all your devices | No: Sync requires the paid subscription | Yes: Yes — unlimited notes, devices, and sync |
| Markdown that renders inline as you type | Yes: Markdown-style inline formatting as you type | Yes: Yes — Typora-style WYSIWYG, no preview pane |
| Export in an open format | Yes: Markdown, plain text, and PDF export | Yes: Yes — Markdown, plaintext or re-encrypted |
| Open code you can self-host | No: Closed, and only on Apple platforms | Yes: Yes — run the backend yourself |
Competitor products change. These notes were reviewed in September 2026 — check the vendor’s own site for current pricing, limits, and features before you decide.
How Bear handles encryption
Bear syncs through Apple’s iCloud infrastructure, which means encryption in transit and at rest with keys the platform can use. That is standard, sensible consumer cloud security, and it is not zero-knowledge: the operator of the service is inside the trust boundary, and so are the legal mechanisms that can compel it.
For a shopping list or a travel plan that is a reasonable trade. For a therapy journal, a set of credentials-adjacent notes, or anything involving another person’s private information, it is the exact trade most people would decline if they were asked directly.
Scrinium asks directly. Notes are encrypted with per-note keys derived from your vault key, the vault key is unlocked by your password and never written to disk, and the server stores ciphertext plus a verifier. If the database were published tomorrow, the notes in it would still be unreadable.
Who can read your notes
Bear treats Markdown as a storage format, which is to its credit: notes export as Markdown or plain text, and the app stays out of the way of the file.
The tether is the platform, not the format. Bear is available on Apple devices only, so the notebook has a shelf life measured in hardware decisions, and sync is a subscription rather than a property of the app.
Scrinium keeps the Markdown export and removes the platform condition. It runs in a browser on anything, on iOS and Android as a web app, and its encrypted backend can be self-hosted — so the continuity of your notes does not depend on a store listing.
Editing: Bear vs Scrinium
Bear’s editor is genuinely lovely: Markdown shortcuts, inline styling while you type, fast tagging, and a design that respects the text. Anyone who values it will find Scrinium familiar rather than foreign.
Scrinium goes further on structure with inline rendering for tables, task lists, fenced code with syntax highlighting, blockquotes, images, math and diagrams, plus folding, version history on Pro, a graph view from [[wikilinks]], and search that runs locally over decrypted content.
Pricing: what you actually pay for
Bear’s core app is free and sync sits behind a subscription, with the tier structure shifting over time as the product matures.
Scrinium inverts that: encrypted sync is free and unlimited, and the paid tiers buy advanced features rather than access to your own notes on a second device. If the thing you want is the same notebook on every device, Scrinium does not charge for it.
Where Bear is the better choice
Use Bear if you want a native, tactile Mac and iPhone app with superb typography and no interest in a browser. On Apple hardware it feels better than anything cross-platform, and that feeling is not a small thing — a notebook you enjoy opening gets used.
It is also the right pick if your notes are casual, your devices are Apple, and paying a subscription for a well-made app is exactly what you want to do.
Where Scrinium is the better choice
Choose Scrinium when the writing surface matters as much as the app around it — Markdown you can take anywhere, a browser you can open on any machine, and an encryption model that does not change based on which device you bought.
It is also the better fit for anyone whose devices are not all Apple, who wants to know what the server stores, or who would rather the sync bill not be the price of the notebook.
Moving from Bear to Scrinium
Export your notes from Bear as Markdown or plain text — tags come along in the text — then import the files into Scrinium in one step. Attachments need re-attaching, but text, links, and structure survive.
A reasonable sequence is to migrate the private notebooks first, keep Bear for what it is good at, and let the split settle for a few weeks.
Questions people ask
Is Bear encrypted?
Bear uses encrypted transport and storage, but its sync is not end-to-end encrypted: the service involved can access the data with the keys it holds. Scrinium encrypts each note on your device first, so the server only ever receives ciphertext.
Does Scrinium work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. Scrinium is a web app that runs in the browser on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux, with the same encrypted sync and the same free tier everywhere — nothing is gated by platform.
Is Bear free?
The app is free with sync behind a paid subscription. Scrinium includes unlimited encrypted sync on the free tier and charges for advanced features such as attachments, version history, and burner notes instead.
Free, unlimited encrypted sync. No card, no note cap — and the server cannot read a word of it.
Keep reading
Bear is a trademark of its owner. Scrinium is not affiliated with Bear, and nothing here implies endorsement in either direction.